


The Way Not Missed

by iberiandoctor (jehane)



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Javert Survives, Inspired by Poetry, M/M, Pastiche, Poetry, Post-Seine, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-29
Updated: 2016-09-29
Packaged: 2018-08-18 11:20:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8160352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jehane/pseuds/iberiandoctor
Summary: What if he could have admitted it had not been hate, after all?





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [francu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/francu/gifts).
  * Inspired by [To One Hated](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/232006) by Lucy Maud Montgomery. 



> _(A treat for Francu: a hopefully emotional, equal and balanced post-Seine Valvert remix of a poem she found inspiring, Lucy Maud Montgomery's "To One Hated". I found it inspiring too!)_
> 
> _Wonderful beta by Miss M._

_The Way Not Missed --_

I walked the valley of my birth, steeped in my fate's bitterness.  
Life had bent my hand to no other weapon but my hate.  
Then God and mercy led me to this cherished second chance:  
Great as my hatred was, I know now a love twice again as great.

Every cold word of mine you returned with a gentle glance  
Warmed with your pulse's impassioned throb, with your heart's leap.  
Until the hidden days, the moments fleeting, false, and stinging,  
Were repaid in nights of pleasure, wondrous and true and deep.

Bitter as our hatred was, old and rigid and unchanging,  
To alter its ruinous course would be to change night to day.  
But as pride to prayer was its bitterness transformed to sweetness --  
And we found that love had, at our lives' end, not missed its way.

**Author's Note:**

> _To One Hated --_   
>  _Hate is only Love that has missed its way._
> 
> _Had it been when I came to the valley where the paths parted asunder,_  
>  _Chance had led my feet to the way of love, not hate,_  
>  _I might have cherished you well, have been to you fond and faithful,_  
>  _Great as my hatred is, so might my love have been great._
> 
> _Each cold word of mine might have been a kiss impassioned,_  
>  _Warm with the throb of my heart, thrilled with my pulse's leap,_  
>  _And every glance of scorn, lashing, pursuing, and stinging,_  
>  _As a look of tenderness would have been wondrous and deep._
> 
> _Bitter our hatred is, old and strong and unchanging,_   
>  _Twined with the fibres of life, blent with body and soul,_   
>  _But as its bitterness, so might have been our love's sweetness_   
>  _Had it not missed the way -- strange missing and sad! -- to its goal._
> 
>  
> 
> _\-- Lucy Maud Montgomery, The Watchman & Other Poems (1916)_


End file.
